as the two largest ticket positions in the world, the biggest difference between the North American market and the Chinese market is the difference in film marketing channels. In North America, six major studios, including Disney, Paramount and 20th Century Foss, have a traditional and almost monolithic marketing model.
original title: "Angry Birds" grossed 1 billion yuan? I think too much! If James Cameron had brought "Avatar" to the Chinese premiere six years ago, many would have guessed whether some Chinese company had advertised 20th Century Foss, rather than Foss's own expectations of the Chinese market. If Leonardo DiCaprio could have come to China during the promotion period six years ago, Inception would have done more than that at the box office. But six years later, everything changed. " Over the past six years, Patrick Bosesky, the lead author of the Asian industry for the Hollywood Reporter, has observed two changes. The six major Hollywood studios are becoming more and more serious about the Chinese market, while the Chinese market has taught Hollywood to become more and more elusive.
as a guest of a forum on "Chinese Film going out" at the 2016 Shanghai International Film and Television Festival, Boseski murmured to reporters outside the forum: "maybe we can also talk about the 'homework' that Hollywood has done to study the Chinese market, although it seems that those 'homework' may not always work." No, someone immediately provided an actual case of Hollywood's failure to do a good job in "Chinese homework". Li Yi, general manager of 1905 Pictures, who has promoted several imported blockbusters, told reporters that when Transformers 4 was introduced to China in 2014, Paramount hopes that 1905 Pictures can help them promote it to be as good as the third episode, that is, 1 billion yuan. as a result, it almost doubled than expected, and the Chinese box office of "change 4" reached 1.97 billion yuan. Paramount, who was overjoyed, immediately associated with it, if he had invested more marketing costs in China, would his performance have been better? When Sony Pictures and Finland's Rovio found a Chinese marketer in April this year, foreigners' appetite swelled: "can you achieve the benchmark achievement like Zootopia?" Or join the'1 billion yuan club'? " Some enthusiasm was directly poured water by Li Yi and his team to cool down, combining the production, type, audience and other factors, Li Yi almost "cut" the customer's expectations. "We will still do it according to the lofty goal." but we also make psychological presuppositions for foreigners: the reasonable box office is 400 million yuan. Now, 25 days after its domestic release, Angry Birds grossed 508 million yuan both within China's expectations and to Sony Pictures' satisfaction. "'Chinese homework' teaching Hollywood is getting more and more headache." Li Yi said, "the six major Hollywood studios, which were originally confident, stubborn and strong, loosened a little bit and began to accept customized marketing in the Chinese market." strong > TV launch? Chinese movies will not do this / strong > on the whole, as the two largest ticket positions in the world, the biggest difference between the North American market and the Chinese market is the difference in film marketing channels. In North America, six major studios, including Disney, Paramount and 20th Century Foss, have a traditional and almost monolithic marketing model. "TV commercials and outdoor advertising are the largest marketing channels for the six major studios. Star Wars will spend a lot of money on TV commercials during the broadcast of the Super Bowl, and Captain America will shoot promotional videos at landmarks around the world. " Boseski says that buying hard and holding premieres is a Hollywood routine. "with the development of the film industry, the six major studios operate like sophisticated instruments, with few breakthroughs. In today's Internet age, the best they can do is to ask the creative stars to post a few photos and write a sentence or two on their Twitter page, that's all. " but in China, how long has it been since we saw a movie advertisement on the TV screen? "on the contrary, the participation of the Internet, BAT, new media and self-media makes the whole Chinese marketing channel completely different from North America, or even from the whole world." 'at first, Americans don't understand how special the Chinese market is, so it's hard for them to convince each other to make a change, 'Mr. Li said. For example, 1905 Pictures and Alibaba Pictures want to add some Chinese elements to the poster of Mission impossible 5. But Paramount felt that basic materials such as posters should not be changed greatly, and time did not allow them to think about Chinese customized versions of posters, so Paramount did not implement this proposal. But by the time Sony came this year with the Angry Birds project, the initiative had been handed over to the Chinese. What the Chinese side can do includes all kinds of marketing, such as playing love cards and live streaming "thick eyebrow makeup" online, and the results are all good. They also enjoy all-round benefits such as box office receipts, online payments and derivatives development. Li Yi told reporters that in the process of cooperation with Paramount and Sony, the foreign side will ask the Chinese side to provide relevant data on each marketing activity, including name, cycle, budget, influence, effect, and so on. Although this requirement applies to every cooperative market, "it is also an important way for Americans to enter the Chinese market." strong > place ads? Bluntly curry favor with the outdated / strong > "Hollywood is trying to build a data model to understand the Chinese market, but the Chinese market is still groping and fine-tuning on the road of industrialization, even if we need to observe it in time and closely." Li Yi admitted that the blunt and large-scale placement of advertisements now needs a different way of thinking, "because if the purpose is too impure, the audience will see through it." it is only natural that commercial advertisements are implanted in modern films. But what kind of implant is too smart to be boring? Bosesky listed several essentials: "the most conventional is landmark architecture, the most reasonable is to match the progress of the plot, and the most blunt is to use lines to strengthen memory." Applied in "Variety 4", landmarks such as the Great Wall, the Bird's Nest, Tianjin Grand Theater, Guangzhou "Xiaoman waist" and Chongqing Wulong Tiankeng have "courted" audiences all over China, but they are a little far-fetched in the plot. Zou Shiming, the boxer who helped him, Lu Liangwei, the second-hand car seller who haggled with Li Bingbing, and Zhao Qian, who disappeared immediately after the elevator door was opened, were even more reluctant. As for the rest of the Yili Shuhua milk, Jiannanchun, Zhou's Black Duck and other brands, can simply be called "intensive bombing". "if these marketing are still successful and effective in 2014, then this old road may not work now. If Transformers 5 is still represented by us, we will strictly screen the placement ads. " Li Yi said, "the audience in the Chinese market is making faster progress than expected."
Edit: yvette